Description

Follow the northeast buttress through the fifth pitch. Traverse about 15ft left below a grungy looking arch with a pin. the Crucifix starts here. Make hard lay-back moves to a long reach into thin fingers. Follow this crack to an improbable appearing open book. Stem and smear past adequate protection to a roof, traversing left and above to easy low angle climbing. Belay at the base of the curved overhanging fist crack. Two #3 Camalots and two #3.5 Camalots will see you through the fists. The crack varies in size a bunch above. Belay at the base of a wide(#5 Camalot) crack. The first ten feet are brutal. This narrows to thin hands, capped by a right traverse. Your second will whine if you don't consider his protection here. Traverse to the right edge of the ledge and belay. Single bolt at your feet plus a pod for a 3/4 camalot. The crack above takes RPS and # 2 or 3 lowe balls. There may be something fixed. Make a few difficult stems to reach the finger crack. Follow this to an overhanging thin crack. Clip a fixed piece high in the crack, then descend a few feet and go left, lay-back. Reach high right, and get back into the crack. Place gear before the large hollow block and climb into the funky chimney. A #4 cam fits in the top. Pull through, and set a belay at the edge. Above is a short section of 5.10 fingers and the top.

This route deserve better description. Text is not broke by pitches and it difficult to comprehend. Astoman and Rostrum on this site can be good example how to write. Here the story of first accent written by Kevin Worrall supertopo.com/climbing/thread....

FA: Jim Bridwell, Kevin Worrall. With "No pins, no bolts, no hammer, no food, 1 quart of water. Doubles on some hexes, not all, nothing bigger than a 10 hex and a few stoppers" and "one fuzzed out red and blue 150 ft Edelrid 9 mil that looked like it was salvaged from a food hang in camp."

Badass.

Here's a pitch-by-pitch breakdown from a modern ascent:

P1: From the 2-bolt belay on the NEB (P5 on the MP description), go straight up the thin corner and past a roof (12b). Continue up the flared corner with thin pro (5.10). At the top of the corner, bust left around a roof to gain a low angle handcrack, and follow this to a belay with 1 good bolt and a slung chockstone. 160'.

P2: Up the obvious hand and fist crack, starting as a steep LF corner, becoming a vertical splitter with a few pods and flares. This pitch is #3 camalot sized nearly the whole way, with a few spots for smaller gear, and one spot for a larger cam (#4 Camalot). With 2 Blue Camalots, you can walk them up the entire way. Near the end of this pitch, the crack pinches down to fingers. Bust right here on good edges and big wedged flakes (felt secure) to a belay stance with 1 good bolt (backs up with #1-#3 Camalot). 5.10, 170'

P3: Up a hand crack to a small OW roof. Stemming helped here. Higher, encounter another OW section, with a few helpful crimps. You could protect this section with one #4 Camalot (new style worked fine), backcleaning it after the first OW roof to use on the second OW section. After the OW, follow a wide hands crack. When it pinches down to thin hands, make a big (~40') traverse right on a narrow ledge system (the right "arm" of the crucifix as seen from afar). Belay at the end of the ledge at 1 good bolt, with some backup gear at your feet. 5.10, 120'.

P4: Stem right off the end of the ledge (11c, super-exposed!), and up a thin corner (RPs). Continue up the corner on good fingers to another crux (11d) featuring a cool kneebar. Continue up and through more pumpy, sustained 5.10 climbing with good pro, eventually passing the huge roof on its right. Above the roof, trend left, topping out past one more 10+ crux. 180', belay off a tree. This pitch is one of the coolest pitches of free climbing I've done in the Valley!

Take care on the moves that gain the left side of the slender ledge on pitch 3 as there is a VERY loose flake guarding the ledge itself. Avoid the temptation to pull on the flake and instead plug your fingers into the dirt filled crack near it which, although not as pleasant as you'd like, is A LOT safer.

A write up of our adventure here. Rad line. Great summer climb. Stays shady all afternoon. Since led at 5.11 C2, so I encourage more mediocre climbers like me to give this route a shot. Sitting on the arm of the Crucifix will make you giddy with joy.